How Nintendo Is Learning From Super Mario Run, no PC games in pipeline

So the next Nintendo game will be another microtransactions hell?

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How Nintendo Is Learning From Super Mario Run

Nintendo's smartphone game Super Mario Run was a huge hit in terms of downloads, passing 150 million worldwide. However, the company has acknowledged the game has not brought in as much money as it had hoped. In an investor briefing recently, Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima acknowledged that Nintendo is "still a newcomer in the smart-devices business," and added that the company is still deciding what is best when it comes to payment models.

Super Mario Run, for example, is free to start but you need to pay $10 to unlock all the courses. Fire Emblem Heroes and Miitomo, on the other hand, are free and supported by microtransactions.

"Although no single model is clearly superior, we have been able to learn a lot," Kimishima said. "We want to keep thinking about how consumers would want to pay for content in our future smart-device applications."

Of the 150 million downloads for Super Mario Run, less than 10 percent of players paid to buy all the courses. Kimishima did not say anything about whether or not this was in line with the company's expectations. He did mention, however, that while the total number of Fire Emblem Heroes downloads is "less than a tenth" of Super Mario Run, the game has actually brought in more revenue than Super Mario Run.

"The number of downloads of Fire Emblem Heroes is less than a tenth of the number for Super Mario Run, but the total figure that consumers have spent on this title is more than on Super Mario Run," he explained.

Kimishima stressed that Nintendo sees a "wide variety" of usage from its mobile games among users, including those who spend money on microtransactions. Nintendo's next big smartphone game is based on Animal Crossing, and you can expect the game's monetisation systems to reflect what the company has learned from its past games.

We are planning to release an application using the characters from Animal Crossing," Kimishima said. "The composition and size of the target audience varies based on the IP characters and game content, so we want to take what we have learned and consider all of these elements to provide a smart-device application that consumers will want to play for a long time."

Nintendo has published the English translation of the latest Annual General Meeting, and one of the questions pertained to PC games. Someone asked, "Are you planning any hardware or software initiatives in the PC market?" Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima responded by saying Nintendo is aware that PC gaming is popular, but he made it clear that Nintendo isn't extending itself to that market soon or possibly ever.

"We are aware that many consumers play PC games. However, we believe that the integrated hardware-software business is the best way for us to provide the surprises and new gameplay experiences that we want to achieve," he said.
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For a long time, Nintendo held out from releasing smartphones games before ultimately getting on board with Super Mario Run and other titles. Super Mario Run has been a big hit, reaching 150 million downloads globally.

So this is to say, Nintendo's stance of not releasing games on PC might not be set in store; as always, things can change. But for the time being, you can expect Nintendo to continue to focus on its own hardware, including Nintendo Switch and 3DS, as well as its smartphone initiatives.

"We believe that we can further expand our core integrated hardware-software business by providing our software on smart devices and increasing the number of consumers who experience our IP," Kimishima said.